Calling all nature-loving outdoor explorers

Dakota Indians first named this land “minisota,” meaning “land of sky-tinted water,” when they settled here more than three centuries ago. Today, Minnesota is still known for its breathtaking scenery, with magnificent forests, beautiful prairieland and sparkling blue lakes dotting the state.

Minnesota Getaways

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A Lay of the Land

The Mighty Mississippi begins in a small spring-fed lake in Itasca State Park and winds its 1,126-kilometer path through Minnesota before flowing south to the Gulf of Mexico. Visitors can walk a stone path across the source of the Mississippi to ensure a long and happy life, according to legend. The 240-kilometer Highway 61 along Lake Superior’s coast, an All-American Road, offers state parks, scenic overlooks, waterfalls and the Split Rock Lighthouse, whether you’re traveling by auto, bicycle or motorcycle, or hiking the North Shore scenic trail. Visit harbor town Duluth, a lively, welcoming place hopping with breweries and a vibrant lakefront scene.

Monumental Outdoors

Two national monuments – Grand Portage on Minnesota’s northeastern tip and Pipestone National Monument in its southwestern corner – preserve the state’s rich American Indian and fur-trapping heritage. Twenty-six state historic sites document the growth of Minnesota, including the boyhood home of aviator Charles Lindbergh, the estate of the Mayo brothers (of Mayo Clinic fame) and the original Main Street of author Sinclair Lewis. Outdoor recreation opportunities include Voyageurs National Park, the only water-based national park in the country, and the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness, a region with 1,300 lakes. Additionally, 76 state parks, 58 state forests and two national forests provide camping, hiking, biking and scenic driving experiences for visitors of all ages and skills.

Midwestern Metropolis

In the Minneapolis-St. Paul area, Mall of America, the largest enclosed shopping and entertainment complex in the U.S., offers plenty of excitement for all ages, with 520 stores, 50 restaurants, 14 movie theaters, SEALIFE Aquarium, Nickelodeon Universe Amusement Park, free live concerts and events, attractions and salons (and there’s no sales tax on clothing or shoes in Minnesota). Scores of theaters, museums and galleries define the Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington area as an influential arts haven. The music scene is legendary, launching such native superstars as Bob Dylan and Prince, artists whose stomping grounds you can still see today. The Walker Art Center is one of the nation’s top modern art institutes, and the Weisman Art Center, designed by Frank Gehry, sparkles on the University of Minnesota’s Mississippi riverfront campus.

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Fun Fact

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The world’s largest hockey stick and puck are located in downtown Eveleth, which is often called the capital of American hockey and is home to the United States Hockey Hall of Fame.

Photo: EMT

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Due to a topographer’s error, the Northwest Angle is separated from the rest of the state and can only be accessed by water or through Canadian customs by land.

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There are more “Rails to Trails” – former railroad routes that have been converted into bicycling and walking paths – paved in Minnesota than any other state in the U.S.

Photo: EMT

Must see places

Mall of America

With more than 500 stores, an indoor amusement park featuring upwards of 20 rides, attractions like Flyover America and the Minnesota Sea Life Aquarium, as well as two attached hotels and dozens of restaurants, this mall is unlike any you’ve ever experienced.

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Itasca State Park

Minnesota’s oldest state park, near Bemidji, has another claim to fame: The headwaters of the Mighty Mississippi River are located here. Boat, paddle or swim the river or hike through the old-growth pines, where you’ll find an Indian cemetery and Wegmann’s Cabin to explore. Drive the Lake County Scenic Byway to catch everything you missed on the hike.

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National Eagle Center

Everything you’ve ever wanted to know about the iconic bird is covered here. Go on an eagle viewing trip in the wild, catch a live eagle program, sit inside an eagle’s nest or engage with any number of interactive exhibits.

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International Wolf Center

See the center’s Exhibit Pack up close and personal, and then listen to a naturalist-guided program as what you just observed is explained to you. The Wolves and Humans exhibit here is 557 square meters of interactive fun and learning, with video games, art and displays that tell the story of wolves.

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Prince’s Paisley Park

The legendary artist’s Chanhassen estate in Minneapolis offers two tours that will take you deep inside the icon’s daily life. See the Prince archives, which include hundreds of artifacts and awards, and even take a peek at his wardrobe. Upgrade to the VIP tour to go even further into the home, and make sure to stay long enough to see the house at night, when lights turn it lavender.

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North American Bear Center

Get to know the bear in a whole new way at this center in Ely, where you’ll find full-scale bear mounts you can examine from all angles, and then real ones you can observe in the backyard from a safe distance. Programs, events and tons of exhibits (including audio of bear sounds) await those interested in knowing more.

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Pipestone National Monument

The slabs and stones of red rock found in this now-protected tallgrass prairie were quarried by the Plains tribes and made into ceremonial pipes. Take the interpretive trail through the quarry area and end at Winnewissa Falls, learning about the area’s rich American Indian heritage and landscape.

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Fort Snelling

The state’s history comes alive at this early 19th century fort set right where the Minnesota and Mississippi Rivers meet, a site long held sacred by the area’s Native American tribes. Tours, reenactments and history players teach visitors about the fort’s fur trade history and its military past.

Trip - 5 days

Ask a Local

Ask a Local: Minnesota

Ask a Local: Minnesota - Transcript

Minnesota means land of sky reflecting waters. Just such a great place to bring your family and to relax and get out into nature. We just love it here. The area we're at is called the Iron Range. In the summer here, we fish a lot. Land of 10,000 lakes, right? And one of our favorites is to catch walleye. They're the best tasting fish I've ever had. The boys really love it. Its a great feast. Then there's all these hiking trails. There's a lookout mountain that you can go up on and see some of the overlooks in the area. In the winter, we have a lot of really fun things to do. You have your ice fishing, your ice skating. Hockey is huge around here with the Hockey Hall of Fame and the world's largest hockey stick. Snowshoeing, snowboarding and skiing, and then curling.

The people here are very unique. A lot of them were immigrants that came to the area and did the mining right around the turn of the century. There're small communities all over the place, and they have little festivals. It gives the area a really Scandinavian feel. Some of the music in the area is a little different. Polka's really a lot of fun. You have this kinda upbeat music, kinda boom, boom, boom. Some of the must-try foods in this area are sauerkraut, polishes and then porchetta. You can only find porchetta here, it's nowhere else in the entire world. While you're here, you really gotta try a pasty. It's kinda like a meat pie. And what they would do, is they'd actually take these things and they'd cook them. They'd put them in the miner's boots, and he would carry them to work in that pair of boots. They're not served in boots anymore. So you don't have to worry about that.

You can get pastys at Betty's Pies. And while you're there, you really should try out that milkshake that's made out of an entire pie. They take it and they blend it up and put it in this milkshake. It's amazing. Minneapolis is a very creative place. We've got a lot of differents arts districts. Uptown art district, where the Minneapolis Institute of Art is, the Walker Arts Center is there, which is where the sculpture garden is. Towards northeast, there's a lot of little smaller galleries that have more local artists and musicians and all sorts of murals. We've got a lot of microbreweries around northeast. There's Pryes Brewery, which is one of the only places in America that you can actually go feather bowling. You should definitely check it out. There's also a ton of really interesting small businesses here in Minneapolis that I guarantee you won't find anywhere else. There's Memory Lanes, which is a bowling alley that actually has concerts right above the lane. There's galactic pizza that you have to order. Have them deliver it to you, because they deliver in superhero costumes. And then of course, there's Betty Dangers, where they have a rotating patio and all sorts of things to see. There's a ton of food and drink around Minneapolis. The Bachelor Farmer, it's this really cool restaurant that sources everything locally, but they like to create more modern dishes with old Scandinavian influences. There's actually this really cool little speakeasy bar called Volsteads Emporium. You actually have to go through an alleyway and find the light to get to the speakeasy.

Walking down Duluth, you're gonna see a lot of friendly faces. There's always something going on. Live music, performing arts, we have a lot of special dinners with restaurants and farmer collaborations. We love seeing new people and welcoming 'em to our city and showing off how awesome it is to be here. We love to collaborate in Duluth. My favorite one right now is Duluth Coffee Company and Bent Paddle Brewing collaborated with local ingredients, and they made a cold press beer, and it is really good. The reason we have so many distilleries and breweries in town is because we're on the western point of Lake Superior, which is the biggest and best of all the Great Lakes. So we have the best freshwater, and that makes the best beer and spirits. The lake's good for basically anything you wanna do. Anything you can do on land, we try to do on water.

A quirky Minnesota thing is our hot dish. My favorite version of a hot dish is actually totchos from the food truck The Rambler. It's nachos and tater tots mixed together to make this really delicious, cheesy dish. It's amazing, you should try it. We like to get outdoors in the winter at Duluth winter village. It's a weekend full of beer and bonfires, barnyard animals and shopping locally. We love live music in Duluth. You'll hear everything from folk to rock. Bob Dylan was born here, after all. There are a lot of cool venues in town. Red Herring has a show every night. The Clyde and then Bayfront is an outdoor music festival that's right on the water. If you could only pick one spot, my personal favorite is Sir Ben's, they have a piano, so there's always somebody willing to play a song with you or for you. Jam sessions usually break out before then. And it's definitely the most chill place in town to listen to music and have a beer.

Ask a Local: Mall of America

Ask a Local: Minnesota - Transcript

Minnesota means land of sky reflecting waters. Just such a great place to bring your family and to relax and get out into nature. We just love it here. The area we're at is called the Iron Range. In the summer here, we fish a lot. Land of 10,000 lakes, right? And one of our favorites is to catch walleye. They're the best tasting fish I've ever had. The boys really love it. Its a great feast. Then there's all these hiking trails. There's a lookout mountain that you can go up on and see some of the overlooks in the area. In the winter, we have a lot of really fun things to do. You have your ice fishing, your ice skating. Hockey is huge around here with the Hockey Hall of Fame and the world's largest hockey stick. Snowshoeing, snowboarding and skiing, and then curling.

The people here are very unique. A lot of them were immigrants that came to the area and did the mining right around the turn of the century. There're small communities all over the place, and they have little festivals. It gives the area a really Scandinavian feel. Some of the music in the area is a little different. Polka's really a lot of fun. You have this kinda upbeat music, kinda boom, boom, boom. Some of the must-try foods in this area are sauerkraut, polishes and then porchetta. You can only find porchetta here, it's nowhere else in the entire world. While you're here, you really gotta try a pasty. It's kinda like a meat pie. And what they would do, is they'd actually take these things and they'd cook them. They'd put them in the miner's boots, and he would carry them to work in that pair of boots. They're not served in boots anymore. So you don't have to worry about that.

You can get pastys at Betty's Pies. And while you're there, you really should try out that milkshake that's made out of an entire pie. They take it and they blend it up and put it in this milkshake. It's amazing. Minneapolis is a very creative place. We've got a lot of differents arts districts. Uptown art district, where the Minneapolis Institute of Art is, the Walker Arts Center is there, which is where the sculpture garden is. Towards northeast, there's a lot of little smaller galleries that have more local artists and musicians and all sorts of murals. We've got a lot of microbreweries around northeast. There's Pryes Brewery, which is one of the only places in America that you can actually go feather bowling. You should definitely check it out. There's also a ton of really interesting small businesses here in Minneapolis that I guarantee you won't find anywhere else. There's Memory Lanes, which is a bowling alley that actually has concerts right above the lane. There's galactic pizza that you have to order. Have them deliver it to you, because they deliver in superhero costumes. And then of course, there's Betty Dangers, where they have a rotating patio and all sorts of things to see. There's a ton of food and drink around Minneapolis. The Bachelor Farmer, it's this really cool restaurant that sources everything locally, but they like to create more modern dishes with old Scandinavian influences. There's actually this really cool little speakeasy bar called Volsteads Emporium. You actually have to go through an alleyway and find the light to get to the speakeasy.

Walking down Duluth, you're gonna see a lot of friendly faces. There's always something going on. Live music, performing arts, we have a lot of special dinners with restaurants and farmer collaborations. We love seeing new people and welcoming 'em to our city and showing off how awesome it is to be here. We love to collaborate in Duluth. My favorite one right now is Duluth Coffee Company and Bent Paddle Brewing collaborated with local ingredients, and they made a cold press beer, and it is really good. The reason we have so many distilleries and breweries in town is because we're on the western point of Lake Superior, which is the biggest and best of all the Great Lakes. So we have the best freshwater, and that makes the best beer and spirits. The lake's good for basically anything you wanna do. Anything you can do on land, we try to do on water.

A quirky Minnesota thing is our hot dish. My favorite version of a hot dish is actually totchos from the food truck The Rambler. It's nachos and tater tots mixed together to make this really delicious, cheesy dish. It's amazing, you should try it. We like to get outdoors in the winter at Duluth winter village. It's a weekend full of beer and bonfires, barnyard animals and shopping locally. We love live music in Duluth. You'll hear everything from folk to rock. Bob Dylan was born here, after all. There are a lot of cool venues in town. Red Herring has a show every night. The Clyde and then Bayfront is an outdoor music festival that's right on the water. If you could only pick one spot, my personal favorite is Sir Ben's, they have a piano, so there's always somebody willing to play a song with you or for you. Jam sessions usually break out before then. And it's definitely the most chill place in town to listen to music and have a beer.

Ask a Local: Minnesota

Ask a Local: Minnesota - Transcript

Minnesota means land of sky reflecting waters. Just such a great place to bring your family and to relax and get out into nature. We just love it here. The area we're at is called the Iron Range. In the summer here, we fish a lot. Land of 10,000 lakes, right? And one of our favorites is to catch walleye. They're the best tasting fish I've ever had. The boys really love it. Its a great feast. Then there's all these hiking trails. There's a lookout mountain that you can go up on and see some of the overlooks in the area. In the winter, we have a lot of really fun things to do. You have your ice fishing, your ice skating. Hockey is huge around here with the Hockey Hall of Fame and the world's largest hockey stick. Snowshoeing, snowboarding and skiing, and then curling.

The people here are very unique. A lot of them were immigrants that came to the area and did the mining right around the turn of the century. There're small communities all over the place, and they have little festivals. It gives the area a really Scandinavian feel. Some of the music in the area is a little different. Polka's really a lot of fun. You have this kinda upbeat music, kinda boom, boom, boom. Some of the must-try foods in this area are sauerkraut, polishes and then porchetta. You can only find porchetta here, it's nowhere else in the entire world. While you're here, you really gotta try a pasty. It's kinda like a meat pie. And what they would do, is they'd actually take these things and they'd cook them. They'd put them in the miner's boots, and he would carry them to work in that pair of boots. They're not served in boots anymore. So you don't have to worry about that.

You can get pastys at Betty's Pies. And while you're there, you really should try out that milkshake that's made out of an entire pie. They take it and they blend it up and put it in this milkshake. It's amazing. Minneapolis is a very creative place. We've got a lot of differents arts districts. Uptown art district, where the Minneapolis Institute of Art is, the Walker Arts Center is there, which is where the sculpture garden is. Towards northeast, there's a lot of little smaller galleries that have more local artists and musicians and all sorts of murals. We've got a lot of microbreweries around northeast. There's Pryes Brewery, which is one of the only places in America that you can actually go feather bowling. You should definitely check it out. There's also a ton of really interesting small businesses here in Minneapolis that I guarantee you won't find anywhere else. There's Memory Lanes, which is a bowling alley that actually has concerts right above the lane. There's galactic pizza that you have to order. Have them deliver it to you, because they deliver in superhero costumes. And then of course, there's Betty Dangers, where they have a rotating patio and all sorts of things to see. There's a ton of food and drink around Minneapolis. The Bachelor Farmer, it's this really cool restaurant that sources everything locally, but they like to create more modern dishes with old Scandinavian influences. There's actually this really cool little speakeasy bar called Volsteads Emporium. You actually have to go through an alleyway and find the light to get to the speakeasy.

Walking down Duluth, you're gonna see a lot of friendly faces. There's always something going on. Live music, performing arts, we have a lot of special dinners with restaurants and farmer collaborations. We love seeing new people and welcoming 'em to our city and showing off how awesome it is to be here. We love to collaborate in Duluth. My favorite one right now is Duluth Coffee Company and Bent Paddle Brewing collaborated with local ingredients, and they made a cold press beer, and it is really good. The reason we have so many distilleries and breweries in town is because we're on the western point of Lake Superior, which is the biggest and best of all the Great Lakes. So we have the best freshwater, and that makes the best beer and spirits. The lake's good for basically anything you wanna do. Anything you can do on land, we try to do on water.

A quirky Minnesota thing is our hot dish. My favorite version of a hot dish is actually totchos from the food truck The Rambler. It's nachos and tater tots mixed together to make this really delicious, cheesy dish. It's amazing, you should try it. We like to get outdoors in the winter at Duluth winter village. It's a weekend full of beer and bonfires, barnyard animals and shopping locally. We love live music in Duluth. You'll hear everything from folk to rock. Bob Dylan was born here, after all. There are a lot of cool venues in town. Red Herring has a show every night. The Clyde and then Bayfront is an outdoor music festival that's right on the water. If you could only pick one spot, my personal favorite is Sir Ben's, they have a piano, so there's always somebody willing to play a song with you or for you. Jam sessions usually break out before then. And it's definitely the most chill place in town to listen to music and have a beer.